But mostly annoying.
“Put me down, you big oaf!” Eliza swatted Fish on the shoulder, but there was no real force behind it.
“Fine.” Fisher lowered her slowly, letting her body drag against his so that by the time Eliza’s feet hit the floor, her cheeks were flaming red. “You woke up on the bossy side of the bed this morning, huh?”
The smile she slanted him was pure seduction. “You love it.”
Fish’s return grin was that of a man who’d gotten everything he wanted out of life. “Yeah, I do. I really do.”
“Ugh.” Sam rolled his eyes. “Get a room.”
Fish frowned at Sam. “Don’t yuck our yum just because you’re cranky that your girlfriend is out of town again.”
Sam’s girlfriend, a purple-haired computer whiz named Hannah, was employed by the Cyber Crimes Division of the DOD. She’d recently been working on cases that required her to travel. It was a situation that made Sam—who was otherwise a pretty amiable guy—decidedly grouchy.
Sam opened his mouth to answer, but Britt didn’t stick around to hear it. Instead, he quickly made his way to the door and thumbed on his phone.
“What’s up, Rafe?” Before Rafe could answer, Britt grimaced and added, “Sweet Jesus. Is there anything in your Spotify account that doesn’t make me want to take a bath with a toaster?”
The Connelly brothers, the four huge, freckled native Chicagoans who took shifts manning the gate, were great at their jobs. They were never late. They never complained about the long hours or the boredom that was occasionally followed by bursts of excitement or gunfire. And they could tell jokes better than standup comedians.
But they hadshittaste in music. Geralt was a fan of jazz. Manus preferred death metal. Toran had recently gotten into a musical genre called “folktronica.” And Rafer? Well, Rafe blared nothing but yacht rock.
The dulcet tones of Rupert Holmes singing his one-hit wonder “Escape” drifted over the open connection.
Not that Britt couldn’t appreciate some soft-sational seventies tunes. But he’d always thought “Escape”—otherwise known as “The Pina Colada Song”—was complete garbage.
I mean, theybothset out to cheat on each other. And then, when they catch each other, they just laugh and act like their mutual deception is nothing?
Ignoring him, Rafer announced, “You’ve got company.”
Britt hurried out to the shop, where a monitor was mounted on the wall beside the front door. The screen was tuned to the security feed at the front gate.
He squinted at the two figures on the feed. The first was a woman huddled in a light jacket. The second was a man leaning an arm casually into the window of the guard house.
But not justanyman. Britt’sbrother.
Knox had gone missing soon after being released from his last stint in the pen.
On the one hand, Britt was relieved to see him alive and kicking. The last time they’d talked, Knox had been amped about some new venture, and Britt had assumed the next word he’d hear about his brother was when Knox was either back inside the big house ordead.On the other hand, he was filled with a deep sense of dread. Because as much as it pained him to admit it, Knox’s sudden arrival could mean only one thing.
Trouble.
3
Sabrina Greenlee wrapped her arms around herself to keep her heart from flying out of her chest.
She hoped, however, that anyone looking at her would simply think she was attempting to stop the cool north wind from tunneling under the hem of the jacket she’d stolen off the rack at that truck stop in Indiana.
Yes, stolen.
I’m a thief.
Discounting the M&M’s she’d taken from a gas station when she was three—and that didn’t count because she’d been too young to understand how commerce worked—she’d never swiped anything in her life. However, in the last twenty-four hours, she’d stolen more things than she could count.
Okay, that wasn’t true. She’d kept count.
She wasn’t sure why. If she’d been religious, she would’ve said it was so she could ask God for forgiveness for each and every transgression. If she’d been a kleptomaniac, she would’ve said it was so she could relive the thrill of the crimes. But since she was neither, she supposed she’d kept a mental tally because she told herself if she lived through this ordeal, she would go back and repay the people and places she’d wronged. Put some change back into her karma bank.
